The metagame post Worlds was a bit stale. Everyone was playing Doran, Dragonstorm, Elves or Mana Ramp. Mannequin was there but it was losing power day by day. By then I was taking a break from Magic. It was boring and I had no intentions of innovating at all. Then two things happened, Morningtide came out and Jon Finkel won PT Kuala Lumpur. I had all of the motivation I needed from that PT and from the release of a new set.
After the release of a new set, ideas always start flowing and new archetypes are born. As you all know I love Control decks because I like card advantage and to have options and I were in a desperate need of something like that because Permission was no longer viable. Then Reveillark combo was born.
Reveillark had all the tools to become a Tier 1 deck. It had card advantage, recursion, and a game winning combo. It had also some control elements and that was enough to convince myself of playing it. I started testing and tweaking, by this time Morningtide was released on MTGO. I’ve never built a deck on MTGO before but Reveillark had me so excited and gave me butterflies in my stomach that I actually needed to test it online.
I started testing online because I lack of good local playtest partners. I thank Robin aka RoninX for playing against me a few times and watching some of my games. I played a bunch of games in the Tournament Practice room and I was getting back in shape. My insight was better and my knowledge of the format got better and better. Then GP Shizouka happened and probably the best active player in the world right now, Kenji “Lucky Master” Tsumura was piloting a Reveillark deck to almost a perfect record. He lost in the semis to Olivier Ruel and his faeries. I wanted Reveillark to win but it was good this way as people was going to shift towards Faeries because it won and therefore I would have a easier metagame to predict.
My metagame is full of “net deckers” that just copy exact lists card by card, even the SB which is unforgivable because SB are designed with a metagame in mind. The least they can do is tweak the SB. I knew that my “first” tournament will feature faeries. I was ready to take this information to my very own advantage.
Faeries are a really bad matchup because of their aggressiveness and their permission. Crovax is perhaps the best card against Bitterblossom but its high cost hurts my eyes, still it hurt the deck in overall and I got him in my team. Remove Soul is so good in this format full of critters that it is almost an auto inclusion. My friend Fras aka Inquisitor said this last month and I agreed; now I can agree again. After spending a few days thinking and testing, also predicting a possible metagame, I decided to play this:
// Lands
4 [FUT] Nimbus Maze
4 [10E] Adarkar Wastes
7 [UNH] Island
5 [UNH] Plains
2 [10E] Faerie Conclave
1 [TSP] Urza's Factory
// Creatures
4 [MOR] Reveillark
3 [PLC] Body Double
2 [LRW] Mirror Entity
1 [FUT] Venser, Shaper Savant
3 [TSP] Riftwing Cloudskate
4 [LRW] Mulldrifter
2 [LRW] Sower of Temptation
3 [PLC] Aven Riftwatcher
// Spells
2 [TSP] Momentary Blink
4 [10E] Mind Stone
3 [REW] Wrath of God
4 [CS] Rune Snag
2 [TSP] Careful Consideration
// Sideboard
SB: 1 [FUT] Venser, Shaper Savant
SB: 1 [LRW] Sower of Temptation
SB: 2 [PLC] Stonecloaker
SB: 2 [PLC] Crovax, Ascendant Hero
SB: 3 [10E] Remove Soul
SB: 1 [LRW] Ajani Goldmane
SB: 1 [FUT] Pact of Negation
SB: 1 [TSP] Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir
SB: 3 [PLC] Porphyry Nodes
And now I was ready to make a comeback to tournament play.
Round 1: Kithkin Game 1: He had somewhat of a weak hand. He overcommitted the board way too much. I mean six critters and you have all the signals that I’m playing a Wrath of God. I cast Wrath of God wiping the board clean and proceeded to combo out.
SB: Nothing because from the look of is eyes he was inexperienced and I could win this via better decisions.
Game 2: I took damage until he got me to 8 life. I cast Wrath of God and evoked and Mulldrifter. He cast two more critters. I stole one with Sower of Temptation and bounced the other one. I won via beats. 1-0 (2-0)
Round 2: Mirror (Old Version) Game 1: He suspended a Riftwing Cloudskate and I suspended mine too. He got stuck on two lands. He bounced my Conclave and swung. I bounced his Conclave and played a Mulldrifter. He swings and I traded. I played a Body Double as Riftwing Cloudskate bouncing his Conclave. He condemns my Riftwing Cloudskate. I play another one a turn later bouncing his Conclave. Then on the next turn I played Mirror Entity and a new Body Double copying his Reveillark in the graveyard that he discarded a few turns back
SB:
-3 Aven Riftwatchers
-1 Body Double
-1 Mirror Entity
-3 Wrath of God
+1 Venser, Shaper Savant
+1 Pact of Negation
+1 Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir
+2 Stonecloaker
+3 Remove Soul
Game2: This game was interesting and a bit long. I play Venser at end of turn bouncing his land. I swing. He plays a land and pass. I swing again. He goes foe Teferi, I respond with a Rune Snag. He goes for a Reveillark evoked, I play Rune Snag again. I play Body Double copying Teferi, it was a better play rather than the Reveillark because I wanted to stop Blinks or Vensers. He plays Sower of Temptation stealing my “Teferi”, he evokes Mulldrifter. I play Sower of Temptation and get my “Teferi” back. I swing with Mulldrifter and Venser so they can die. He goes foe evoked Reveillark, I play my third Rune Snag. I play a land and passed. He goes for Mirror Entity. If it resolves I lose the game, if I play Snag he has 8 plus 2 more to pay. I evoke Reveillark at instant speed and bring back Venser and Mulldrifter. Mirror Entity goes from stack to hand and then he replayed it. I cast my last Rune Snag and won the next turn via combo. 2-0 (4-0)
Round 3: This guy is one of my friends and we decided to tell the TO to put a win on whoever he wanted. I would’ve won this match anyways because we tested a couple of days before and I beat him 3-1
Round 4: BR Goblins Game 1: Not much happened here. I countered a couple of Epochrasites and Siege Gang Commander. A few turns later I completed the combo.
SB:
-1 Mirror Entity
-1 Body Double
-1 Riftwing Cloudskate
+3 Remove Soul
I could’ve SB better but I thought only that was necessary.
Game2: I played a Mulldrifter followed by a Riftwing Cloudskate a turn later. He played Siege Gang Commander. I wrath the board and he looks at my graveyard, sign of Extirpate coming. He takes out my Riftwing Clodskates and founds out I only had two. I dropped a Reveillark and proceeded to win via beats. 4-0 (8-0)
The Last Mile
Quarterfinals: Mono Blue Control
This guy was talking a lot of non sense, and was getting on my nerves.
Game 1: I kept a random hand with a couple of lands, Wrath of God and a Reveillark. He suspended a Riftwing Cloudskate, and then he played a Guile and started talking more non sense. I tried Mirror Entity and he casted Pact of Negation. He tried to humiliate me. I’m usually very friendly with people but he started to get personal I got arrogant. I said, “Feeling lucky just because you beat Reveillark. Let me give you two quick lessons and proceed to smarter opponents and win this.”
SB:
-3 Aven Riftwatcher
-3 Wrath of God
+1 Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir
+1 Pact of Negation
+3 Remove Soul
+1 Venser Shaper Savant
Game 2: I evoked a Mulldriftrer and got countered. He played his third land in the form of Tolaria West. I played a Venser when he tried to cast Think Twice at end of turn. He replayed the land and I started beating. He tried for Teferi, I responded with Remove Soul. He then played a Scapelexis, yes you read right Scapelexis. I played Body Double targeting Teferi and a turn later a Reveillark. He conceded.
Game 3: I managed a quick start and I snuck a Teferi. Then played part of the combo and drew cards until I had counters. He played Scapelexis again. I went for the combo activating it two by two, then just attacked with Conclave. He was mad and conceded. My last words to him were, “I’m the beatdown”
Semifinals: BR Goblins
Game 1: This was practically the same game as when we first faced. I cleaned the board and proceeded to win via beats.
SB:
-3 Riftwing Cloudskate
-1 Body Double
-2 Careful Consideration
+3 Remove Soul
+1 Ajani Goldmane
+2 Crovax, Ascendant Hero
Game 2: I managed to evoke a couple of Mulldrifters and played an Aven Riftwatcher. He played a Shriekmaw and killed my Aven Riftwatcher. I played a Reveillark. He played Stupor followed by Extirpate to remove my Mirror Entity. He was in shock again to see only two Mirror Entities and I said, “Your Extirpates are rather weak.” I played a Crovax that died to an Eyeblight’s Ending. A turn later I played a Body Double copying Crovax instead of the Reveillark that he killed at the start of my turn. He drops me to 4. I cast Ajani Goldmane and gave Vigilance to all my critters and in response he killed my Mulldrifter but forgot that my Aven was now 4/5 and he was at 4 life too.
Finals: Mirror (Old School w/ Commands)
I haven’t played this guy but he beat my friend in the semifinals. I guess he got lucky because he is not that good of a player.
Game 1: It was a complete battle. I evoke, you evoke. There was a moment that I was close to going off but he beat me one turn earlier.
SB:
3 Wrath of God
-3 Aven Riftwatchers
-1 Mirror Entity
+3 Remove Soul
+2 Stonecloaker
+1 Venser, Shaper Savant
+1 Pact of Negation
Game 2: Was a bit better on my side because my rune Snags prevented anything critical from the other side of the table. This game was quick because I started to attack his mana base but at one point, I got into trouble. He tried to play a Body Double, he had two Tormod’s Crypt in play and I had 2 Rune Snags in the yard. I casted a third Rune Snag and he replied with a Pact of Negation. I let it resolve to use my last Rune Snag and he had two mana up with two Tormod’s Crypt in play. He forgot to activate those Crypts and save his card so I proceeded to win
Game 3: This game a bit more interesting but he had very few blue sources while mine were growing more and more. I risked a Reveillark, and he let it resolve this was a sign of Sower of Temptation. Indeed. I cast pact of Negation. I pay my upkeep and swing. He then plays another one but he was left tapped because he tried Mulldrifter before. I cast my own Sower of Temptatiion leaving two mana up. He went to dig for answers. I swung again. He then tried Blink on Sower and I responded with a blink on my Reveillark and an end of turn Careful Consideration to discard the remaining pieces of the combo. I combo next turn and he conceded.
This deck has proved to be a powerful deck. The key to master the worst matchups this deck has it to be one step ahead. On the next blog I will post solutions for difficult matchups and ways to approach to them. I want to thank Fras and Robin for their help lately. Maybe it seems like you guys haven’t helped but you actually have. Thanks to the guys in the forums that come up with the craziest of the ideas that work. And last to Kevin aka Hazared for finally jumping to the Light side. Next time and remember, your will is bigger than any projected metagame, and you can beat anything no matter what.
Tags: Reveillark Magic Standard
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Magic: the Gathering
